Business executives are extremely positive about Mumbai’s digital transformation landscape. The city scores 7.65 on a 10-point scale — 3rd highest out of the 45 cities in the study.

On a national level, it ranks just two places behind Bangalore and one above New Delhi. Alpesh Shah, senior partner and director with the Boston Consulting Group (India), confirms the bullishness that exists amongst local businesses about the digital environment, despite some of its weaknesses. Educational institutions in Mumbai, Bangalore and New Delhi consistently produce large numbers of skilled technology graduates, he says, and the number of formal and informal networks, forums and communities, which bring together digital entrepreneurs, technology managers and others, is growing rapidly.

At the same time, many Mumbai executives believe a shortage of skilled talent is a serious constraint on their efforts to pursue digital transformation. (Only cyber security concerns are more prevalent amongst the survey sample in Mumbai.) The most serious gaps are felt in big data analytics and in cyber security specialisations. When it comes to securing external support for their digital transformation programmes, relatively few Mumbai businesses look to government. Business associations are often used by companies for this purpose, as are university networks and the events that they organise in the city. Just over one-third of respondents (36%) tap government sources of financing for some of their initiatives, but the majority (53%) turn to banks and other financial institutions for such assistance. Almost as many (49%), however, also tap informal sources for this purpose, such as networks of relatives and friends.